220 THE CONTKOL OF LIFE 



What Motives ? 



Some thoughtful critics of our modern development 

 have said that what fills them with foreboding in regard 

 to the decline of the birth-rate is not the fact itself, 

 nor the method of birth-control employed, but the 

 motive. It is difficult to discover motives. Most of 

 our motives are a good deal mixed. But one cannot 

 help feeling what was well expressed in a remarkable 

 article in the Scotsman some years ago, " Stand Up, Ye 

 Dead," that there is a good deal of selfishness and 

 poor-spiritedness behind the empty cradle and the 

 celibate club. As Mr. W. S. Lilly says : it is well that 

 men should wish to warm both their hands before the 

 fire of life, but they need not be so mortally afraid 

 of burning their fingers. Yet it would be a gross error 

 to suppose that the motives behind the control of 

 births are necessarily selfish. 



Three notes in conclusion. (1) We should recognise 

 how little we know about the birth-rate, its changes and 

 its possibilities cf harmful and useful control. Our 

 ignorance is immense. But we must not shut our eyes 

 and drift. We must command our course with more 

 knowledge. We must have franker medical advice. 

 We must not be impatient in conclusions, or in conduct. 

 He that belie veth in evolution shall not make haste. 



(2) We must view the decline of the birth-rate not 

 only personally but in relation to national welfare and 

 stability. Better 40 millions healthy and vigorous and 

 joyous, than 60 millions riddled with bad health, weak- 

 ness, and depression. But we must also view it inter- 



